They have to show me defense and rebounding. If Doc can improve them there, they are absolutely in the mix. If they can't, Miami and Indy would roll them right up.

It's kind of confusing that people list rebounding as something both Griffin and Jordan need to get better because people are clearly just looking at their base numbers. The Clippers grab 74.5% of their defensive rebounds with Griffin on the floor and 74.7% of their rebounds when Jordan is on the floor. Both those numbers would put them in the top 10 in the league (they were 15th last season). When Griffin and Jordan are on the floor together, they grab 4.8% more rebounds per 100 possessions than their opponents. No, their supposed rebounding problems occurred when Griffin and Jordan weren't on the floor.

Defense though is something I vaguely agree with. They weren't as bad a defensive as some people will lead to believe, and especially when it comes to Griffin, his negatives there were harped on a whole lot while his positives were often times overlooked or outright ignored. But if the Clippers want to go further, what they really need is for Jordan to be a better help defender than he is now because he could be dominant there but his awareness is lacking right now.

Still though, they'll be in the mix all season, assuming they stay healthy because their offense is going to be ridiculously good. Gentry's schemes are probably going to incorporate a lot of the Suns system. People will probably reference the Suns running the ball, but that really wasn't their offense even under D'Antoni and was more focused on spreading the floor and hitting threes or getting to the basket on pick and rolls. Adding Redick and Dudley was a great move as both of them are great shooters, excellent ball movers, and two of the smarter cutters in the league.